


Dr. Spencer Reid's Other Job

by ShimmeringDarkness



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-02
Updated: 2020-05-02
Packaged: 2021-03-01 19:28:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,339
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23972233
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShimmeringDarkness/pseuds/ShimmeringDarkness
Summary: Just a quick fun one-shot I thought about if Spencer was secretly the Director and goes all strong and dominant, and how the team would react.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 82





	Dr. Spencer Reid's Other Job

The team had just been called into the conference room by JJ, to be briefed for a case, when Spencer got yet another call on his phone and sighed. He stepped back out of the conference room and talked for a moment before the team could just barely hear him finfish with “Right, Stace, I’m about to go on a case with my BAU team, hold my calls please, I need a detailed list of everyone who calls and whatever they want now, in an email every night until I get back…. right same drill as always…. Thank you, Stace, you’re a lifesaver, I will work on that raise for next month considering the hell I put you through…. Right, I’ll call you when I have time tonight or tomorrow. Alright.” The team had been noticing the calls their boy genius was getting increasing a lot over the last few months, but no one knew what had happened. They were all worried and exchanged looks right before he slid back into the conference room as JJ entered to begin the briefing. Even Hotch was worried about his youngest agent, but his work performance had not slipped, so there wasn’t really any reason for him to pry answers out of him.

The team went on a case, all members subtly keeping an eye on their agent to try and figure out what was happening. Spencer was sharing a room with Morgan, and while he knew his actions would be suspicious, there was only so much he could realistically hide. He was staying up late working on his laptop and frantically scribbling something on a notepad, trying to whisper quietly on the phone. Derek would fall asleep to him still working on whatever, and wake up to his pretty boy having already showered and working away on his laptop at the desk in the corner of the room. It was becoming an alarmingly familiar state of being when he would share a room on a case. He could only guess the sleep his little brother got when they weren’t sharing a room and Derek couldn’t pressure him to get some sleep. The whole team was worrying but there really wasn’t anything they could do. Garcia had already tried to pull the list of people that were calling him, but she was only getting numbers linked to various FBI agents. That had made the team curious if he was doing some other work for the FBI as well and if he was, Hotch wanted to know why he hadn’t been made aware of his agent’s tasks and assignments. For now though, they could only guess, and try to force him into sleep and getting food.

It was about 3 weeks later and the whole team and their families were relaxing in Rossi’s backyard, enjoying a team BBQ. Though it hadn’t escaped many of the adults’ notice even now Spencer wasn’t relaxed, and for someone who didn’t use to like technology much, he was checking his phone constantly and firing off texts left and right. It was when Reid sighed deeply when yet another call came in, and he stepped into the house to answer it, that Hotch decided they were going to find out what was going on, because this was getting ridiculous, especially with how hard Reid seemed to be trying to hide what he was doing, they all wanted to know what was happening. 

After 5 minutes Spencer slipped back out with the phone still up but was quickly stopped by Henry who quickly wrapped his arms around his godfather trying to get his attention so Reid quickly spoke into the phone “Hang on Stace, I’m at a BBQ and Henry needs me, give me a second.” before setting the phone on the lounger next to him by the pool and bending down to Henry’s height saying, “Hey buddy what’s up.” The 7-year-old jumped up and down and said: “Come play with me, Uncle Spence!” Spencer’s smile fell and said, “I need to finish this call, it’s really important, can you play with Jack for ten minutes and then I’ll come play with you okay?” Neither of the two noticed they had grabbed most of the adults’ attention, wondering if they were going to get answers from their secretive genius and if a 7-year-old’s questioning skills were better than a team of the best agents in the country. Henry tilted his head at his Uncle in thought, and being a very inquisitive child, Reid had a private guess that Henry might be gifted, asked: “Why’s it important?” Spencer looked at Henry before saying “Well isn’t all work important, Henry? Like if your mom gets called out on a case with our team, you might not want her to leave but it’s important for her to help other people, it’s important that I do my work too, even when it’s inconvenient.” Henry looked confused before saying “Why do you have to work now though? My mom doesn’t have to work now it’s a party.” Spencer looked thoughtful before saying simply “I have a bit more work than your mom so I have to work sometimes even if I have the day off, I know it’s kind of confusing.” Henry put his hand over his mouth thinking before saying “Why do you have more work?” Spencer thought for a moment before saying “You know how you have more homework this year than last at school because you’re learning new things?” Henry nodded so Spencer spoke, “It’s like that at work too, the harder your job is the more you might have to do at home.” Henry nodded before saying “But Uncle Aaron's job is even harder, so shouldn’t he have even more work than you?” Spencer nodded “He does when we’re at work, but I do some other work for the FBI outside of the team, and since we’re so busy, I have to do a lot of my other work in personal time.” The team exchanged looks at just what Spencer was doing, they knew he occasionally did work with other agencies, but they didn’t know he did extra work for the FBI as well. Henry just nodded and said, “Okay, I’ll go play with Jack, but then you have to play with me, Uncle Spence.” Spencer smiled and stood up saying “Of course, I wouldn’t let you down.” Henry jumped up and ran off to Jack who was kicking a soccer ball around. 

Now free to go back to his call, Reid picked up his phone again and rummaged through his messenger bag for something, pulling out a pen and a notepad. He set the paper on the table to his right now that he had sat down, before speaking into his phone, seemingly having forgotten the team was around as he crossed his bare feet comfortably and said “Alright, sorry Stace, I’m back, but we need to be fast because I told Henry I’d go play with him in 10 minutes, I’ll call you later tonight if I need to though, so what’s the deal with this task force thing?” The team looked confused again at that as they couldn’t hear what the person Reid was talking to was saying. Reid, however, was listening attentively and scribbling things down on the paper in front of him. Over the phone, Stacy was talking quickly to Reid about the interagency case he had been coordinating with the Director of the CIA, to try and catch a horrible, international fugitive. “Okay, Spencer, so the call that came in after you left last night, from Director Gomez was telling you that Interpol’s Director in London, Director Kerrington wants in on this after whoever this monster is blasted through London. Through whatever codebreaking that’s higher than my math skills you two figured out he's coming to the US next, Interpol did too and they want a crack at him in any of the three countries the person’s hit in Europe.” After listening to his assistant’s newest update, Spencer ran a hand through his hair and said “alright so can I run this whole mess by you, I have an eidetic memory and I can barely keep this chaos straight, how has Gomez done this for so many years? Anyway, so Interpol now wants in because they heard about our force and want to try him in the UK, France, or Italy, I really don’t care, the CIA’s angle is figuring out how the hell this guy got through the border and if he’s a terrorist and what his goal is, and we’re working it to simply try and catch him while he’s in the US.” Stacy replied, “Yes, Dr. Reid, that is how it appears.” Spencer sighed and flopped back on the lounge chair before saying “And the reason I never thought to try and pose this to Hotch and make it a BAU case before this second so I don’t have to deal with this chaos was?” Stacy laughed in his ear and said: “Because he’s an international criminal and you have strong morals and the CIA brought the case to you so you couldn’t very well kick them out, and then you would need to turn him over to the CIA anyway, Sir.” “Good lord, drop the ‘Sir’ Stace, I can’t do sarcasm right now I have a headache and oh yeah, I’m Off Right Now! But fine, Interpol’s in, why not, I’m bringing my team in on this for the FBI side, we need the profilers and they’re good the best period, and we’re headquartering this at the FBI, I want it on my space.” Stacey agreed and said, “I will inform Directors Gomez and Kerrigan of that early Monday morning but you’ll need to be on that call to make further plans.” Reid sighed and said “Alright, see if we can do it 6 am our time, I can be in my office by 5 Monday morning, but just so you're aware, once the first body drops, Kerrigan can come, plus a lackey or two, but I’m basing the force of my team, and whatever Gomez wants to toss in because Interpol has nothing once they're in our territory. At this point, he’s getting the death penalty no matter where he’s tried once we catch him we’ll turn him over to the CIA, they can fight out what to do with him, God what happened to basic serial killers.” “Your team caught them all” she snarked back sassily. Reid laughed “Alright, anything else, or can I go play with my Godson now Stace.” “I think that’s it, you mentioned bringing in your team though, I get the feeling Gomez is not going to be interested in utilizing your technical analyst because of the situation regarding her entrance into the FBI.” Reid groaned “I don’t care if he likes it or not, she’s the best technical analyst and overall hacker I’ve ever seen, she was on this case, mission, whatever from day 1 whether the BAU came in or not, we need her to track this psychopath.” “Alright Dr. Reid, go have fun, I’ll call you later.” Reid smiled finally, making the team relax deciding the call had moved onto good news, as they were still extraordinarily confused, but pretended like they hadn’t been listening as they heard Reid say “Alright Stace, thank you, I don’t know what I would do without your brilliance, probably make more than a few important politicians and figureheads pissed off I would guess. Go play with your son, relax, got it?” He heard Stacey reply, “I will, there’s just so much work.” Reid interrupted her, “Relax Stace, goodbye,” and then he hung up without another word.

He laid for a minute thinking before pushing himself up and realizing his team had just heard every word and was not hiding their confusion very well. He made eye contact with Garcia who looked _very_ curious and groaned before realizing he had an out, hopping up and saying, “Well, I’m off to play with my favorite 6-year-old now.” Garcia let out a screech saying “Oh no no no boy genius, you have to explain.” Reid sighed and said, “Fine, later, Henry’s already waited long enough.” He walked around the pool and over to where Henry was playing with Jack, slipping between the two and stealing the ball away with a surprising adeptness, the team had been shocked to learn that he was, for some reason, very good at soccer, he could nearly rival JJ, his clumsiness or awkwardness disappeared and he was an impressive player. The three played for nearly 30 minutes before Henry decided he wanted to get in the pool, so Reid went and laid back down on a pool lounger.

He’d barely started to relax when a person blocked his sun, and when the didn’t move, he opened his eyes to find Garcia leaning over him with her arms crossed and the whole team had taken up residence in the nearby chairs, where they could watch the kids, and listen to Reid. He sighed and sat up saying “I’m not getting out of this am I?” They all shook their heads and he sighed before saying “God, I don’t even know where to start so that today’s call would make any sense.” Hotch was the one that came up with the idea “How about what happened 6 months ago that started this crazy business in your life, and all these calls?” Reid nodded and said, “This is going to sound ridiculous and I’m really sorry for not telling you guys but I wasn’t supposed to at the beginning, but then I didn’t know how to tell you and uhhh…” He hesitated and Derek said, “No one’s going to be mad if that’s what you’re worried about.” Spencer nodded and mumbled out “6 months ago… I became the Director.” He rushed the second half out but they still caught it and stared at him open-mouthed, even Hotch’s eyebrows were visibly raised. Emily spoke first but even then it was only “You’re what?” Reid looked down and said, “6 months ago I became the new Director of the FBI.” Derek laughed slightly forced and said, “Very funny pretty boy, there’s no way that’s true though.” Spencer shook his head, “I know it doesn’t make any sense, I wasn’t even in for promotion but Whitmore was getting tired of the chaos of the job and was looking for someone to replace him personally. He said he didn’t want someone that was going to retire in a year or two, so my age, and degrees, my work at the BAU, he was taken with me apparently and I rejected him twice, having no interest in the politics and press conferences before he finally offered a third option which I took. That was that while I am the Director, and hold the power, he is I believe I took JJ’s job and labeled it “The Director’s Press Liaison,” therefore, he is basically a figurehead and works very little, only when I need some kind of public address made he represents me, though almost no one knows the Director has actually changed, we kept it quiet because of the second part of his request for me to take over, which was my requirement that I still be able to work with our team and that nothing would change there. It’s crazy busy and honestly stressful as hell but I wouldn’t change any of it, and I was never going to give the BAU and our team up, which he realized was the main reason for my rejection, so there you go, FBI Director SSA Dr. Spencer Reid.” The team nodded, processing what he said slowly when Derek said: “You just needed to make your title even longer and even more impressive to show off, didn’t you pretty boy?” That broke the team out of their shock and everyone laughed at the little quip, and short congratulations went around the circle. 

After a moment Garcia spoke, “So, Mr. Fancy FBI Director, since you withheld such information from me for so long, I need the deets.” He looked at her “Deets?” She sighed “And yet you still miss so much slang 187, details, what’s it like being the Director?” He smiled and relaxed back in his chair, “Good, really good, Stace loves to bug me about regretting my decision to have two of the hardest jobs in the FBI at the same time but I think hers just might be harder than both of mine put together, which I definitely don’t. The politics, ugh, the politics, is the one part I don’t regret, nor the paperwork, good lord. But, it’s good, I get to reach all over the place and work on these big, far-reaching programs and it’s hard to describe the good I can do, by holding both jobs, and it keeps me busy and challenged, that’s for sure, but it’s great.” Hotch smirked a little before saying “And I thought I did too much paperwork, good luck.” Hotch tilted his head and looked from Derek to Prentiss before saying “I think I can safely say you two cannot give him some of your paperwork anymore, he has more than enough of his own.” They both looked sheepish and opened their mouths to apologize but he just waved it off, “I knew, it got done, either way, though now that you know I will dump all sorts of annoying seminars on you if you keep giving me your paperwork, you know, leadership practice or something, you are both senior agents, I’m sure Hotch would love to get out of a couple of those.” They both put their hands up quickly protesting making Hotch fake sulk “Darn, guess I still have boring budget meetings with Strauss.” Reid sent him a sympathetic look “Sorry, I can’t get you out of that one, I mean I could but I have no valid reason to.” Garcia gasped and said, “Wait, but Hotch is the bossman but now he’s not, 187 you’re messing with all my nicknames.” Reid shook his head “Not really. It wouldn’t be right for me to try and pull rank over him on a case when he’s the leader of our team. General FBI functions, sure, but on a case, he’s still the unit chief, and he’s probably a much better leader than me anyway, thus why I have Whitmore to inspire confidence in the public and be the face of the FBI, director or not, I know I’m not a stereotypical agent.” Hotch looked thoughtful before saying “But you know that would be a weakness in your position and acknowledge it, and you are a good leader, you may not traditionally in our team, but you do when we give a profile, and you’ve survived 6 months as Director so you’re doing something right.” Spencer nodded “I suppose.”

JJ spoke up after a moment, “You were talking about someone named Stacey? Who’s that? And how could her job be harder than being the director?” He smiled “She’s my assistant, since I’m the Director I get a fancy assistant, but also an extremely sweet person, and literally my lifesaver, multiple times. Why is her job harder, because, and Whitmore, John, and I sometimes joke around that our assistant’s main job is to buffer us from the outside world, and wrangle us where we need to go and shove the proper paperwork under our noses for us to sign.” Garcia spoke up “Wait, who’s John?” Spencer smiled “The AD over Strauss and subsequently the BAU and a few other units, as well as my sponsor, and just all around very good friend.” They nodded and Rossi spoke, “So how does that work when we go on cases, being the director and all.” Spencer groaned slightly, “A LOT of very late nights, very early mornings, and far too much coffee than is healthy, I’m sure Derek’s mentioned how late I stay up working on my laptop in the hotel. Even when we’re not on cases sometimes I’m barely getting any sleep. If something major is going on, or some interagency things are happening, I’m probably in my office around 5 or 6 with Stacey, then I come down to the bullpen for our briefings, if Stacey has something time pressing, I’ll go back to my office for lunch, and back down to the bullpen, and then at 6 or 7 slip up to my office to work on Director stuff, though I like working in the bullpen with you guys so sometimes I bring director stuff down to my desk. Which reminds me, Agent Hotchner, that you spend far too much time in your office, I left something I was taking home on my desk one night a few weeks ago and stopped in the bullpen to grab it at like 8:30 and you were still working in your office.” Hotch just shot him a glare before saying “Well you saw me, so you were obviously still there too.” Reid just looked at him “Right, and I have 2 jobs basically, and I was _leaving_ , while you were still _working_.” Hotch sighed but acquiesced, “I’m working on it, I try to only do that if Jack is at a sleepover or something.”

Emily spoke up after that “So what was today’s call about Mr. Director, you were talking about the CIA and Interpol?” Garcia spoke before he could talk “And who were you talking about that’s the best hacker ever because I find that insulting.” Spencer smirked, “I was talking about you, first of all, and secondly, Emily, don’t call me director, don’t call me boss, your guys’ boss is still Hotch, even if I might favor you guys, but I don’t even let Stacy call me boss, though she loves to say very seriously ‘Dr. Reid’ when she’s trying to get me to roll my eyes or take a break. As to what today’s call was about, I’m working with Director Gomez in the CIA on an unsub who’s coming to or already in the US. He’s an international serial killer whom I have to say is a horrific sadistic psychopath. The CIA is following this killer now that we know the next country he’s hitting is the US, and we were planning out how to catch them as soon as we have a starting location, and while I don’t like it, we haven’t been able to do much other than plan, and wait for the first body to drop on US soil which should be in 2 weeks from today. Apparently Interpol figured out what we did and Director Kerrigan contacted Gomez, he wants in, that’s what the main piece of today’s call was. On Monday after my conference call with both of them, I was going to bring you guys in, because I want you on the FBI’s side of the task force…” He trailed off before saying “Well obviously if you’re okay with it Hotch, I just trust you guys, and this is the first big inter-agency mission I’m running because Gomez said they just want a crack at him once we catch him for terrorism, etc, so the FBI is running it, aka me.” Hotch just nodded, “Of course, I think we’d agree anyways but you could just order me to, you are the director.” Spencer nodded “I could, but in a way you’re still my boss, which is a really odd circle if you think about it, but I digress, I wouldn’t have felt right ordering you guys, my family, into doing something.” 

Garcia shifted in her chair before saying “We would never let you do that without the best crime-fighting superheroes to back you up, you said I get to help, what am I doing?” Spencer nodded “Yes, first thing Monday I will send an order to Strauss putting our BAU team off rotation for the next three weeks at least, citing the need for our expertise in a specialized task force, and that will include you. You unfortunately are going to be sifting through thousands of flights from Italy to the UK to France, to the US, and we have no clue of the airports which means you have four entire countries to sort through and a wide range of dates. We’ve already checked, there’s not a name that matches, so my new hope is you will be able to use your genius on IP addresses or something, or some magical ability of yours to find any person who followed that route in the possible time frame.” Garcia looked at him “You realize how many days that will take right?” Spencer nodded, “I do, that’s why we’re going off rotation, so you can not worry about other things. Emily, now that Interpol has poked into this, I’m probably going to need you to help smooth pathways with them, as apparently Kerrigan wasn’t too pleased when Gomez told him that the FBI was leading the investigation.” She nodded, “Not a problem, I’ve actually worked with the man himself briefly on one of my higher class undercover assignments.” Spencer nodded “Also, I will probably need you and Rossi for your language skills when we’re trying to work the UK, Italian, and French governments themselves.” Both nodded and Reid flopped back onto his chair with a sigh, saying, “And that is more than enough work talk for the weekend, relax people.” They laughed but Hotch couldn’t resist pointing out, “Hey Reid, you said you weren’t a leader, but you pretty much just dictated half a mission out to us right of the top of your head.” Reid blushed and looked away, pulling his T-shirt off and slipping into the pool to play with the kids, quickly joined by some of the other adults, resulting in a very fun, relaxing game of pool volleyball, girls (and kids) against the guys.


End file.
